I START RESEARCHING COMPANIES AND TALKING TO PEOPLE AND SENDING EMAILS. Long story short, the guy I talked to at Ramblers over the phone a few days ago randomly showed up in the PeterPans (travel agent adjacent to hostel) in Rainbow Beach where I was on the internet (I overheard him talking to Kate about the new ownership, etc). Asked if they do instruction and at that moment we realized we just talked two days ago and re-affirmed that he was a Sundevil from ASU and I was Husky from UW. Marius proceeds to Facebook me that the owners will be in Rainbow Beach tomorrow and would give me a ride to Ramblers in Toogoolawah and put me up with free accommodation in the bunkhouse and to call Susie. I can't understand how things go your way so well sometimes. Gotta love it. Susie was awesome and not only said they would pick me up and drive me hours south with them in their killer 'busser' (converted into a camper) but also that they would find me a way onward south to get to Byron Bay or farther if need be. Apparently there are 3 birthdays of good skydive culture friends of theirs this weekend and a lot of 'jump heads' will be their and I will be able to party with some kickass people and see some very cool jumps. As I type this I am in the Coolum Beach Bowling Club (lawn bowling for old farts...what a BEEHIVE of activity these places are) drinking beer and have to be back to the skydive shop by 6pm so we can continue south to Toogoolawah. What an adventure this is going to be...
TOOGOOLAWAH, OR 'TOOGS,' ENDED UP BEING A TINY TOWN in the middle of green farmlands with a population of nothing. 2 pubs, 1 post office-type place. As promised I was given a ride by Susie and her husband from Rainbow Beach. They were awesome and answered tons of questions I had. They even put me up in their home for that first night because it was too late to head to Toogs that late. Such nice people Australians are. Driving through the countryside it was UNBELIEVABLE the evidence of the damage of the Queensland floods. Trees and rivers looked like a muddy bathtub that was filled to the brim. Foliage flattened, houses flooded, people losing everything. It was sad to see and again, I was so thankful to be stranded in Rainbow Beach during that time. We pulled in to this rickety old farm house looking place called RAMBLERS. Ramblers is the longest running drop zone for skydiving instruction in the entire country of Australia. Right away I realized I had come to the right place. 30+ years of experience to show me how to jump out of planes by myself. I couldn't have been more excited, nervous, crazy, and lucky all at the same time. See if you can see the plane in the middle of this picture below...that is what you jump out of...
RATHER THAN BORING YOU AGAIN ON WHAT SKYDIVING IS LIKE, I will briefly try and paint a picture of the AFF (Accelerated Free Fall Course) Stage 1, 2, & 3 that I paid $1035 for entails. All jumps are from 14,000 feet and video taped to help teach you skills. You have classroom time before each jump with a guy (my teacher was Bengy) who has jumped out of planes somewhere around 10,000 times. Yes, 10,000 times. Hard to believe. Glad this guy's with me. Jump 1 is tandem where basically you pull a fake handle (thing that deploys your parachute) at 5,000 feet but the instructor actually pulls it. Then, you are to look up at the canopy and count to 6 (one thousand one...one thousand two...etc) as you look for MALFUNCTIONS. The classroom portion of learning about malfunctions is just as scary as the jump. Malfunctions can be a twisted line, a streamer, half deployed canopy, no slider coming down to you, 2nd parachute deployed with your main chute, etc. Watching the videos of these problems in the classroom before these jumps is absolutely terrifying. Jump 2 is BY YOURSELF with a couple of instructors around you that help you exit the plane and make sure you know where your handle is so you can deploy while traveling 120 MPH six thousand feet from the ground. FRIGHTENING to say the least. Jump 3 is the same thing but you actually disconnect from the instructors and start learning to 'turn' during freefall and how to perfect your feet and arms so you are in control of your fall. Crazy friends and family, it was absolutely crazy. It was absolutely worth every penny I spent. Tandem skydiving is fun and games but when you are in charge of pulling your own chute and landing in a drop zone that looks like the size of your thumbnail from that high up, you reiterate to yourself that you are alive and you are surviving. Landing is more dangerous than the actual jump. Finding the DZ (drop zone) after your chute catches air is a bit nerve racking as every field looks the same from 5,000 feet. You remember your training and look for landmarks (thank you sewage station) that guide you to where you will be landing yourself back on to the Earth. Wind, trees, powerlines, human error are all part of the fun when landing in skydiving and let me tell you had a I not army rolled on my 2nd landing by myself I would have really hurt my ankle and/or knees pretty bad. Ground can seem to rush up on you faster than you think.
THE WEEKEND WAS A BLAST BECAUSE THERE WERE THREE 30 YEAR OLD BIRTHDAY PARTIES. Skydivers from all over Australia were camping at Ramblers that weekend and some of the craziest shit I have ever seen that can be done in the sky I saw. These guys have between 5,000 and 10,000 jumps and are basically, as one of them described to me, "fighter planes flying in synchronization towards the earth." Sure enough, when these guys would land they would load the best video of themselves on this huge big screen and everyone would watch it. Picture water aerobics in the sky and some of the leaders were falling BACKWARDS while the students (so to say) were following the teacher's every movement and mirroring everything they did. It actually did look like fighter planes in a dog fight. It was one of the coolest things I have seen on my travels yet. One of the guys told me that these guys are trying things that no one in the world has done yet and basically making a new high speed sport in the sky. Human fighter jets...okay, cool, got it. The weekend was filled with a ton of free beer (people buy a case for everyone for certain milestones in skydiving - i.e. I bought one for my first non tandem skydive) and
costumes, and foosball, and lots of friend making and great conversation. There was only one other student there with me that weekend, a 16 year old kid named Adam. Adam and I stayed in the bunkhouse together and became good friends; talking about our jumps after they would happen. Adam did the 9 stages of AFF (costs $2800) and told me he flipped burgers for one year to save the money to do this. He is going to be a badass back at high school this year I told him. Adam and his mother (who came out to get him) were nice enough to let me hitch a ride with them to the western suburbs of Brisbane and from there I hopped a train to the city center to hop a bus to Byron Bay. Looking back, had the rains never came to Queensland, I would have never researched skydiving school, would have never met Susie, would have never gone to Ramblers, and most importantly; would have never surpassed a personal milestone of life that not many people in the world will ever even think of doing. Great adventure, RCM.
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